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Story highlights

At a bizarre news conference in Sochi, Pussy Riot unveils a video critical of Vladimir Putin

The video features footage taken of band members being attacked by Cossacks

Man in giant chicken costume was part of fowl-themed group attempting to disrupt event

On Tuesday, police in Sochi detained members of the dissident band

After several tumultuous days that included police detentions, interrogations and a public flogging from angry Cossacks, the dissident punk band Pussy Riot struck back.

The controversial Russian musicians released an angry music video on Thursday slamming Russian President Vladimir Putin's crackdown on free speech and political expression. They also took aim at the Sochi Olympics' whopping $50 billion price tag.

Titled "Putin Will Teach You To Love Your Country," the music video included footage filmed Wednesday of Cossacks -- modern-day descendants of 19th-century horsemen who pushed the boundaries of the Russian empire -- flogging the women moments after they began lip-synching their song next to a large "Sochi 2014" sign in the Olympic city.

"The goal is to show what it's like to be a political activist in Olympic Sochi," Pussy Riot member Maria Tolokonnikova told CNN.

The band invited foreign media to a news conference at a hotel in Sochi for the unveiling of the new video on Thursday. But upon arrival, a bizarre scene unfolded.

An employee at the hotel informed journalists a conference room would not be available.

Photos:Pussy Riot in Sochi

Photos:Pussy Riot in Sochi

Pussy Riot in Sochi – A man in a Cossack uniform attacks Pussy Riot band member Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and a photographer during a protest performance in Sochi, Russia, on Wednesday, February 19. The band said it was attacked by security officials while trying to perform a new song called "Putin teaches us to love our motherland" at the main port in Sochi.

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Photos:Pussy Riot in Sochi

Pussy Riot in Sochi – Band member Maria Alyokhina helps up Tolokonnikova on February 19. A day earlier, members of the band as well as journalists and Russian human rights activists were detained for several hours at a police station.

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Photos:Pussy Riot in Sochi

Pussy Riot in Sochi – A member of Pussy Riot lies on the ground February 19. The band has been highly critical of Russian President Vladimir Putin and his policies, and Alyokhina and Tolokonnikova were even imprisoned for a 2012 "punk prayer" performance at a Russian Orthodox cathedral.

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Pussy Riot in Sochi – Uniformed Cossacks in traditional fur hats and uniforms have accompanied Russian police as part of the massive security presence around the Olympics.

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Pussy Riot in Sochi – Aisya Krugovikh, a member of the band's entourage, said that during the altercation, some Cossacks yelled that Pussy Riot members should "shut their mouths," adding "you sold yourselves to the Americans." CNN has repeatedly tried to contact Russian city officials by telephone and e-mail for comment on the allegations.

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Pussy Riot in Sochi – A photographer is whipped while trying to take pictures of the band.

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Pussy Riot in Sochi – Tolokonnikova is pulled away after the protest performance.

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Pussy Riot in Sochi – Pussy Riot members run down the street after they were released without charges from a police station on Tuesday, February 18. Russian police said they were investigating a theft at the hotel where the band was staying.

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Pussy Riot in Sochi – Pussy Riot members make their way through a crowd after they were released on February 18.

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Pussy Riot in Sochi – Tolokonnikova, wearing the blue mask, and other band members leave the police station on February 18.

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Pussy Riot in Sochi – From left, Tolokonnikova and Alyokhina pose for a photo in the police station after their arrest on February 18.

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Pussy Riot in Sochi – Pussy Riot performs in front of Olympic mascots as it records a video in Sochi on February 18.

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Pussy Riot in Sochi – Tolokonnikova speaks on her cell phone as she is escorted to a police car on February 18.

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Pussy Riot in Sochi – This photo, provided by Alyokhina, was taken from inside a police vehicle after she was detained on February 18.

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Pussy Riot in Sochi – This photo provided by Alyokhina, was taken in the back of a police detention vehicle after her arrest on February 18. She and other band members tweeted the news about their detention from their cell phones, with Tolokonnikova posting photos of what she said was the vehicle that was taking her to a police station.

Band members beaten in Sochi on cam

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Pussy Riot members detained near Sochi

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Outside, uniformed police and security officers in civilian clothes awaited the arrival of the band, alongside several dozen journalists.

Also waiting, at least five male university students accompanied by a man dressed in a giant chicken suit.

When four women from the band walked up, arms locked, the university students pulled out raw chickens and began chanting "We like sex with chicken" in mangled English.

The students and costumed chicken then attempted to disrupt the makeshift news conference given by the women in the park outside the hotel.

"We don't understand their behavior and that's why we're protesting," said 23-year old Sergei Barashov, one of the members of the anti-Pussy Riot demonstrators. Barashov said he was afraid the punk band would desecrate a Russian Orthodox cathedral that had been recently constructed on the outskirts of Sochi's Olympic Park.

Pussy Riot rocketed to international fame after the provocative musicians stormed into a Moscow cathedral in 2012 and performed an expletive-ridden song denouncing Putin.

Tolokonnikova and her band mate Maria Alekhina were sent to prison on charges of hooliganism and inciting religious hatred. Russian authorities released the pair shortly before the start of the Olympics in Sochi along with several other high-profile critics of the Russian government.

Prison failed to silence the two young women. They immediately went back to denouncing the Kremlin, as well as conditions inmates endure in Russian prisons.

In the new song, Pussy Riot sings about the "constitution being lynched," government pressure against Russia's lone independent TV station and of last week's sentencing of environmentalist Evgeny Vitishko to a penal colony for three years.

Vitishko, an outspoken critic who drew attention to environmental damage caused by the massive construction around the Sochi Olympics, has gone on hunger strike, according to his defense attorney.

On Tuesday, police in Sochi detained members of Pussy Riot, along with at least seven human rights activists and journalists in connection with the investigation into an alleged theft at the band's hotel. Hours later, all charges were dropped and the detainees were released from the police station, located just a few minutes' drive from the Olympic Torch.

The detention, as well as the televised attack by the Cossacks, have put the International Olympic Committee on the defensive.

"Personally I found the video and pictures very unsettling," said Mark Adams, a spokesman for the IOC.

"It happened in Sochi, but it was unrelated to an Olympic venue and was not, as far as I know, a demonstration against the Olympics," Adams said on Thursday.

In its new song, Pussy Riot also takes aim at a quirk of bathroom interior designing in Sochi that became a social media joke in the Olympic Village and around the world.

"They took gay pride to the washroom," the band sings. "And made a two-seat toilet a priority."